A Soundscape Composition
3 Tracks (69:34)
CD (300 copies)
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[Hein Schoer]
http://www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=3379
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A raven croaks.
I hear a faint broadband noise, not static but gently varying in volume, centre frequency and Zwicker's parameters. At first there are only short blows that enter my consciousness, but as I regain awareness, it becomes a constant, swooshing sound, that, as I realise after a moment of malorientation, arrives at my ears mainly from the half-open window of my room at the Alert Bay Lodge facing the forest behind it.
It's still dark, so I keep lying and listening. The ocean waves manage to escape the masking grip of the wind in the trees. I can hear them very well now; although their frequency band is not that different from the wind, the internal structure of the waveform allows my brain to separate them from one another. I rub the fatigue out of my eyes, slip into my clothes, grab my gear, and head for the opening in the middle of the forest of Cormorant Island Ecological Park.
The spirits of the skies are with me tonight, I think, as the wind stops to blow and leaves nothing but silence. I had been up here late in the evening, and had made a good quarter of an hour of nice ambience recordings, the dominant sound had been wind, but for the morning atmo I prefer a low noisefloor to be able to capture the awaking bugs and birds. With the whole island still asleep the dying wind leaves me in peaceful quiet.
I have come to Alert Bay, BC (British Columbia) in the course of my research project "The Sounding Museum", within which I look at (and listen to) the production and presentation of cultural soundscapes.
This 42-minute piece tries to draw a picture of the contemporary sonic landscape of the people of Alert Bay, the four movements laid out below representing the sacred number and the four realms of Kwakwaka’wakw mythology. It is composed from recordings made in and around Alert Bay in collaboration with William Wasden jr. and other Native scholars of traditional culture, ritual, and mythology, roughly oriented on the tales about the raven and creator entity U'melth and other West Coast myths. It circles around the inner conflict of modern and traditional life in contemporary Native communities.
Two shorter edits, that are on display in quadraphonic surround sound in the Sound Chamber at the North America Native Museum (NONAM) in Zurich, accompany the full version on this CD.
The Project "Sound Chamber - Acoustic Worlds of the Indigenous Peoples of North America" has been approved by the Swiss UNESCO Commission as a contribution to the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures. Its scientific/artistic implementation is conducted by The Sounding Museum.
http://www.fontys.edu/artsinsociety/ http://www.nonam.ch/ http://www.auditorium-mundi.com/ http://www.gruenrekorder.de/
Field Recording Series by Gruenrekorder
Gruenrekorder / Germany / 2010 / Gruen 082 / LC 09488
